Use Your myFollowTheMoney Login

Or

Welcome to myFollowTheMoney, the customized e-mail alert community with deeper access to the unique and powerful data from the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

By creating a free myFollowTheMoney account, you’ll not only be able to download our data for your own exploration, you can also receive updates from us on the issues you care about. In addition, you’ll be signed up to receive our quarterly newsletter, packed with insider information on the hot topics facing money in state politics.

We will not share, rent, or sell your e-mail address with any other individual or organization.

State Debates: Freedom of Choice in Health CareImmune to Obamacare?by Anne Bauer, March 24, 2010

Arizona's Proposition 101 may have failed narrowly in 2008, but it succeeded in another way--spurring copycat legislation designed to put measures just like it on ballots all over the country. Supporters of Arizona's Prop 101 raised just under $700,000, while opponents brought in a little over $1 million in the month before the election.

The opinions and views in the report do not necessarily state or reflect those of the Institute's funders.

State Debates: Freedom of Choice in Health Care

Although America's Affordable Health Choice Act (HR 3200) was signed into law by President Obama, legal challenges await it in the states. The challenges began even before the bill's passage, with Arizona's Proposition 101 in 2008. Proposition 101 may have failed narrowly, but it succeeded in another wayâ€”spurring copycat legislation designed to put measures just like it on ballots all over the country. Supporters of Arizona's Prop 101 raised just under $700,000, while opponents brought in a little over $1 million in the month before the election.

The Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act ("Freedom Act"), adopted as a model for state legislation by the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, to prohibit certain aspects of health care reformâ€”such as single-payer and individual mandates in the statesâ€”began as Arizona's 2008 Proposition 101. Dr. Erik Novack, a Phoenix, Arizona orthopedic surgeon troubled by the tenor of the health care reform debate, sought help from the conservative Goldwater Institute.1
Novack and Clint Bolick, constitutional litigation director at the Goldwater Institute,2
drafted the Freedom Act.

Lawmakers in 36 states introduced legislation with essentially the same language and aim as the Freedom Act

In 2009 and 2010, lawmakers in 36 states (including Arizona) introduced legislation similar to the Freedom Act to either amend the state constitution or change state law. 3
Arizona's bill (HCR 2014) passed a state legislature in 2009; voters will decide the issue in November 2010. Virginia and Idaho recently passed state laws prohibiting aspects of health care reform and promptly sued the federal government along with 12 other states.4

Arizona's Proposition 101 failed by less than one percent of the vote. The measure was one of eight on a ballot crowded with hot-button issues such as same-sex marriage and payday lending that attracted more attention and money. Supporters and opponents of Proposition 101 raised a total of $1.7 million, or just 4 percent of the money raised in Arizona by all ballot measure committees in 2008.

Supporters formed the committee Medical Choice for Arizona Prop 101; that committee raised $691,639. Opponents formed Stop the Prop 101, which raised over $1 million.

Stop the Prop 101

The Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce alone gave $849,505 to defeat Proposition 101â€”more than all the money raised by Medical Choice for Arizona Prop 101, the committee in support of Proposition 101. In its 2008 Voters Guide, the Chamber recommended a No vote, because "Proposition 101 lacks many details which could lead to unintended consequences such as high costs and unnecessary litigation."5
Representatives from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, Cigna Healthcare, TriWest Healthcare Alliance, and St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center sit on the Chamber's board.6
Moreover, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Arizona testified in opposition to HCR 2014.7

The University Physician's Health Plans gave $175,000 to oppose the measure. The University Physicians Health Plans "administers two health plans for AHCCCS and KidsCare members."8
AHCCCS is Arizona's Medicaid program. The other two contributors were the Arizona Tribe Tohono O'odham Nation and Veridus LLC, a government relations firm. All the money given to Stop the Prop 101 came from within Arizona; no individuals contributed to Stop the Prop 101.

Medical Choice for Arizona

Medical Choice for Arizona Prop 101 raised under $700,000. Contributors from around the country with ties to libertarian organizations gave $269,500. The largest single contributors were Frayda and Ken Levy of New Jersey, who contributed $100,000. Frayda Levy founded the New Jersey chapter of Americans for Prosperity and sits on the boards of both Americans for Prosperity and the Club for Growth.9
Americans for Prosperity is "an organization of grassroots leaders who engage citizens in the name of limited government and free markets."10
The Club for Growth believes "prosperity and opportunity come through economic freedom. "11

The next largest contributor was the Benjamin Rush League, an Arizona nonprofit incorporated by Dr. Novack, fellow physicians Jeffrey Singer and Tracy Contant, and by Lori Klein,12
a political consultant with strong ties to Americans for Limited Government founder Howard Rich.13
Singer also served as Treasurer of Medical Choice for Arizona. Singer and Klein both sit on the board of the Arizona Federation of Taxpayers, an affiliate of Americans for Prosperity.14
Singer also sits on the board of the Goldwater Institute.15
The Benjamin Rush League gave $91,000.

The Dawson Management Group gave $75,000. The company's founder, John Dawson, contributes to conservative organizations and candidates, including the Fund for American Studies.16
The Fund for American Studies "advances the values of freedom, democracy and a free-market economy by sponsoring educational programsâ€¦"17
Millionaire philanthropist Charles Burnett III, of Texas and Great Britain, gave another $70,000.

Other notable contributors include Paul Clifton, a board member of the Goldwater Institute as of 2008,18
who gave $30,000; Ethelmae Humphreys, a board member of the Cato Institute, who gave $10,000; John Norton, a major donor to the Goldwater Institute, who gave $10,000; Phoenix Orthopaedic Consultants, Dr. Novack's employer, which gave $10,000; Woodland Group Indiana, an organization owned by voucher advocate and owner of a Health Savings Account administration firm, J. Patrick Rooney (deceased), which gave $10,000; and Cato Institute and Club for Growth member, Jeff Yass, who gave $5,000.

Eight individual contributors from the finance sector gave $134,500 to Medical Choice for Arizona

Eight individual contributors from the finance sector gave $134,500, or 19 percent of the committee's total. Five individuals in real estate gave another $91,000. Medical providers and medical organizations gave $73,825, or just over ten percent.

In contrast to its opposition, Medical Choice for Arizonabegan collecting money early, receiving its inaugural contribution in October 2007. Its most successful fundraising day came on May 14, 2008, when the Levys contributed $100,000. The committee raised money in fits and starts, but brought in money more steadily in the months immediately preceding the election.

Medical Choice for Arizona raised $443,175 from individual contributors, or nearly two-thirds of its support. Out-of-state contributors in 13 states gave $237,500, or just over a third of the committee's total contributions.

Eyes on the Prize in 2010

The 2009 Arizona legislature passed a bill that put the Freedom Act back on the ballot in 2010. Arizonans for Healthcare Freedom registered in support of the resulting ballot measure; Dr. Novack chairs that committee.19
In its campaign contribution report filed January 26, 2010, Arizonans for Health Care Freedom showed a strong start on fundraising. The committee reported $362,944 in contributions, which was more than half of the total raised by Medical Choice for Arizona in 2008. The Benjamin Rush League contributed $250,000 of that, in which Singer, Novack, Klein and Conant are still listed as the officers. As a nonprofit corporation, the League does not have to disclose where it gets its money.

16. "Teaching Freedom Since 1967: The Fund for American Studies, 2007 Annual Report," page 14, The Fund for American Studies, available from http://www.tfas.org/Document.Doc?&id=21, accessed Jan. 28, 2010.

Related News Release

This Report in the News

Before the U.S. Congress even passed the health care reform bill on Sunday, factions in 36 states including Washington were already working to lessen its impact by introducing (or considering the introduction of) legislation to give voters the opportunity to decide the legality of certain aspects of health care reform--such as single-payer systems and individual mandates in the states. Read the full article HERE.

Last month, independent analysts in California discovered that WellPoint "overstated future medical costs" to justify its 39% premium increases in the individual health market and committed numerous other methodological errors and now, Aetna has also withdrawn a filing with California insurance regulators "after discovering it had made calculation errors." Read the full post HERE.

Did You Know?

Candidates up for election in 2005 and 2006 raised $2.3 billion in campaign contributions.